Are there any Dopers here who are bank employees?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have several questions for you if you are. Please disregard the “stereotypical” tone of the questions. I do NOT intend to stereotype. Forthright, is the only way I can think of to ask them. (Note: This occurs at many different local banks I have visited.)

[li]Why do tellers so often dislike making change and/or exchanging change for bills, even when they are not busy?[/li]
[li]Why do banks not accept rolled coins if you do not have an account there, and simply want bills? This is harmless to them but they avoid it like the plague.[/li]
[li]Why do banks not accept coins in large un-rolled volumes? (simple as ten dollars in quarters or major as a piggy bank full of change) They have a change counting machine there, what harm can it do to them, for them to dump my change in their counting machine? (Coinstar sucks! eight and nine-tenths of a cent on the dollar cost for counting! Yes, I am frugal.)[/li]
[li]Why do tellers dislike giving out requested items, such as a new state quarter, that you don’t have yet? Many times they won’t even look for one, they just say no.[/li]
I have encountered these annoyances so often that I can’t even begin to count them. Majority of the times that I attempt to do the above, the bank is not busy at all, and the tellers are doing nothing particular. I have politely asked the tellers on occasion “why do you not…” and only get an evil blank stare or a smart ass “fine! here you go!” attitude. Are banks so unpleasant to work in that the employees are often irate? I don’t get it. What is the Straight Dope on this?

2

I worked for Chase Bank for over five years, and I’ll try to answer the best I can.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MagicalSilverKey *
[li]Why do tellers so often dislike making change and/or exchanging change for bills, even when they are not busy?[/li][/quote]

At Chase, it wasn’t that we didn’t like it, it was that we were not supposed to do it.
There was this one guy who would roll pennies up in a dime wrapper, and try to exchange 2 rolls of ‘dimes’ for ten dollars in bills. He didn’t have an account, and when the rolls were opened and found to be pennies, there was no way for the bank to be reimbursed. It may not sound like a big deal, but if he pulled the same stunt every day at different branches, the bank could easily lose a few hundred bucks.

[quote]
[li]Why do banks not accept rolled coins if you do not have an account there, and simply want bills? This is harmless to them but they avoid it like the plague.[/li][/quote]

If every roll of quarters exchanged was a quarter short, the bank could stand to lose quite a bit over the course of a year.
Banks are businesses. You have to pay to use bank services the same way you have to pay to use everything else. You can’t expect to walk into the local dry cleaner and ask him to clean a shirt free of charge, just because he’s doing laundry. The bank does not want it’s employees doing things for people that don’t have an account, tying the employees up so paying customers have to wait for service. Not exactly harmless, and pretty simple if you think about it.

[quote]
[li]Why do banks not accept coins in large un-rolled volumes? (simple as ten dollars in quarters or major as a piggy bank full of change) They have a change counting machine there, what harm can it do to them, for them to dump my change in their counting machine? (Coinstar sucks! eight and nine-tenths of a cent on the dollar cost for counting! Yes, I am frugal.)[/li][/quote]

See above :slight_smile:
Also, the bank I worked in didn’t have a counting machine, lots of them don’t.

[quote]
[li]Why do tellers dislike giving out requested items, such as a new state quarter, that you don’t have yet? Many times they won’t even look for one, they just say no.[/li][/quote]

The bank does not want some guy going from teller to teller taking up everyones time, spending no money, looking for a certain quarter. And, if you give in once, he’ll keep coming back, just like if you feed a stray cat ;). Sounds harsh, but that’s what it boils down to.

Honestly, the customers (and non-customers) are the worst part of working in a bank. :smiley:

Hope I helped

Rose

3

I work at a bank part-time during the summer, as teller/gopher/quasi-secretary-janitor.

  1. “Why do tellers so often dislike making change and/or exchanging change for bills, even when they are not busy?”

At the bank I work at, we’ll do this sometimes, unless it’s copious amounts of money.

  1. “Why do banks not accept rolled coins if you do not have an account there, and simply want bills? This is harmless to them but they avoid it like the plague.”

Because it’s easy for banks to get ripped off this way.

  1. “Why do banks not accept coins in large un-rolled volumes? (simple as ten dollars in quarters or major as a piggy bank full of change) They have a change counting machine there, what harm can it do to them, for them to dump my change in their counting machine?”

Again, we do this since we have a counting machine, but it’s tedious, and we generally charge non-clients a small fee for doing this.

  1. “Why do tellers dislike giving out requested items, such as a new state quarter, that you don’t have yet?”

Again, we do this…sometimes. It really all depends on the teller’s mood, and I don’t get to do things like that. They stick me in the back room to file and clean up, or at least that’s what they claim. I think they really do it just because it’s covered in dust and they amuse themselves by counting the number of times I sneeze per minute back there.

Anyway, hope I helped.

4

So, basically what it all boils down to is that the banks are afraid of getting ripped off. Okay, that is very understandable and logical. However, my further question is:

[li]If it is against bank policy to deal with coinage, as described in my OP, then how is an individual supposed to exchange their change? Are we to just let it amass in a barrel at home and go on a vending machine spree?[/li]
[li]Where, if not a bank, are we supposed to take our change?[/li]
Correct me if I am in error; I am inclined to assume by your response that dealing with coinage as described, in my OP, is rather frowned upon even with bank customers who have accounts?

5

In the UK, any customer or non-customer can exchange coins at any bank branch. You get standard transparent change bags for a set value of coins of a particular type. They don’t count them, but give the bags a quick look for any wrong coins, then weigh them.